1. Field of the Invention
The subject invention relates to filling valve apparatuses for beverage filling machines and in particular the servicing of the filling valve apparatuses.
2. Description of Related Art
Beverage filling machines typically include, based on size, 40, 60, 72, 100, 120, or 130 filling valve apparatuses. Each of these filling valves progressively fill a container, such as a can or bottle, with a liquid, such as water, soda, or beer. The filling valves are also used when cleaning the beverage filling machine. Typical filling valve apparatuses are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,750,533; 4,979,546; 5,944,072; and 6,076,567.
The filling valve apparatuses are bolted to the beverage filling machines and include a number of working components. Through repeated cycling of the filling valves, the components have a tendency to wear and must be serviced at regular intervals, such as every 1.5 million cycles. The servicing of each of the filling valves is a time consuming and expensive process. Further, the servicing of the filling valves often causes costly errors. To service the filling valves, each filling valves must be removed from the beverage filling machine by removing a nut from a stud extending from the beverage filling machine. Numerous components, such as seals, springs, valves, etc., must then be separately removed and replaced. Taking into consideration the large number of individual filling valves, such as 72, 100, or 130 filling valves, the servicing process can lead to lengthy down times in the operation of the beverage filling machine and to various mistakes.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to develop a filling valve apparatus that can be easily and efficiently serviced and eliminate the errors associated with the servicing while not sacrificing the performance characteristics of the filling valves.